function deal()

I'm having trouble getting deal() to place one number in multiple places. My lines of code:

y1=[];

y2=[];

y3=[];

y={y1 y2 y3};

y=deal(5);

gives me the error: The right hand side of this assignment has too few values to satisfy the left hand side.

[Yin]

er, sorry, the final line should read:

y{:}=deal(5);

Answer 1

[Matt Fig]

y = cell(1,3);  % dispense with the y1, y2, y3 stuff....
[y{:}] = deal(5)

or, without defining the variable first:

[Y{1:3}] = deal(5)  % Y is not defined before this line..

But why use DEAL at all?

y = cell(1,3);
y(:) = {9}

[Yin]

That's awesome, I can't read, lol.

I'm actually trying to figure out how to create a pointer-like structure where values can be dynamically changed without knowing all the variables that "point" to it.

Thanks for your help.